November 8 – The Offering That Is Due

“Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.  O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.”  Psalm 65:1-2 (ESV)

These verses remind us of several reasons why God's people come to Him.  Just as His people were used to going to Jerusalem to praise God so we have the same desire and opportunity wherever we are.  We can praise Him any time, any place, in our hearts.  It does not matter where we are and we don't have to be at any special place or take any specific posture. There are no required or set words that must be repeated but the words of our prayers should include words of Praise to our God.  As we turn to the Lord we remember the promises we have made to Him.  We don't need to go to the temple or to a church building to fulfill our vows for we can renew our promises as we draw near to Him anyplace, with our supplications and thanksgiving. And, of course we know that we can approach God in prayer because He does hear our prayer.  What a joy it is to remember just as David did in our verse today that our praise is due to God who promises to hear our prayers of praise. 

 

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August 27 – Be Wary of Applause

“The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, and each is tested by the praise accorded him.” – Proverbs 27:21 (NASB)

Praise is enjoyable often sought after as a means to shape bolster our self-image and confirm that we have what we desire from others. It is a part of our natural man to desire acclimation and approval from others. Some seek it diligently and strategically and others take it as it comes and do not live for it. No matter, we each find it very difficult to perform before others without doing the self-evaluation on “how we did.” We want to be found worthwhile, capable and proficient to do our assigned tasks. We do not attain excellence every time and sometimes we flop miserably. With our proverb today is another with a similar lesson. Proverbs 27:19; “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects man.” Not only do we seek affirmation from our peers and the congregations but we seek it from ourselves. Our hearts reflect what we are. Looking for acceptance and even celebrity status is like spending too much time in front of a mirror fretting over our appearance. The looking glass will only return what we really are just as our heart reveal our true motivations. 

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July 8 – A Name Worthy to Worship

“Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” -  Nehemiah 9:5 (ESV)

This verse from the book of  Nehemiah is a demonstration of  proper worship of God. This chapter is an account of the people’s reaction after hearing the Law of Moses read. They likstened for 3 hours about the sins of their fathers and for 3 more hours confessed that they had been partakers of similar evil deeds. In response to all of this, they worshiped. Some were a surviving remnant of Israel that was left and not carried away to Babylon; some also those who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon after 70 years of forced exile. Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and took nearly all of the excellent, educated and young to live in Babylon during the three mass exiles. While this is a long confession of sin, it is within the recitation of God’s mighty redemptive acts on Israel’s behalf. Indeed, an expression of worship. We might something about true worship from these words. It begins with acknowledgement of the greatness of God’s name and learn that God’s name is glorious and deserves to be spoken with the greatest of awe and recognition that no other name is greater or higher in all creation.     

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May 19 – – He Has Been Good to Us

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? … But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”  - Psalm 13:1, 5-6 (ESV)

The trial and testing faith believers in Jesus encounter are brought into our lives in order that we may know with certainty the faithfulness of our God. David had learned that God's love never failed. He had gone through many different and difficult circumstances and consequently had come to know he could always sense that no matter what happened God always loved him and was always with him.  Because of turmoil, many who believe in Jesus are fearful of what’s next. Evildoers seem to be taking over our world. And like David, we can know that God's love for us is unfailing His promises are true. No matter what happens in our lives,  our world, God still loves us. We can depend on it and we can trust in His love as David did. He'll bring into our lives experiences which will be for our good. Then our hearts will rejoice as David's heart did and like him we'll sing to God. We have the same reason; we have the same promise of unfailing love and we can rest in the knowledge that God has promised and has been good to us just as He was to David. 

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March 24 – Praise For Glory

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!"  Psalm 115:1 (ESV)

We would be right to understand that nothing we can do that is greater than giving God the Glory He deserves.* Many of the songs in the Psalms remind us of the reasons we have for thanking and for praising our Lord. We notice that the very act of giving praise to God is the way we are to give Him glory. We do not worship God in order to generate good feelings within ourselves – although sincere praise does bring satisfaction and joy to us. Our verse teaches us that the reason we have any reason for thankfulness and praise is because of God's love and because of His faithfulness. It is true, isn't it? The reason God helps us and does so much for his children is His love for us. His love is steadfast, it is the lovingkindness that he has for us. When God does something for us, if He answers our prayers and meets our needs because of His love, not our merit.  God also helps us because He is faithful to His promises and to His character also.  He can be depended on, what He says, He will do.

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*What is Glory of God?

December 14 – Praising, Thanking, Sharing

 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” - Hebrews 13:15-16 (NASB)

 

During the days of observing Christ’s birth which we call Christmas we hear about the angels who sang praises to God when Jesus was born. It was a multitude of angels (we don’t know exactly how many but Revelation 5:11 suggests that the number of the angelic host may be too large for the human mind to fathom.). We know that angels do sing praises to God in heaven and the Bible urges us to sing His praises too. That is the message of our verse today. The reason the angels keep singing praises to God is because they know how great and wonderful He is. The more we know about our Lord, the more we will want to praise Him. Let's be watchful during these days of activity before Christmas that we do not let the lights and the beauty of decorations and the crush of commercialism distract us and cause us to forget God's greatness and His love for us. As we sing carols let's be sure to remember to really pour out praise to our God with all our hearts. Let’s make it a time of truly praising and thanking God.

 

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September 15 – Solid Gold Trust

“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?” – Psalm 56:3-4 (NASB)

Fear can paralyze us, freeze our feet to the ground and cause us to lose our balance. The psalmist, David composed this song which is labeled as “A Mikhtam.” We do not positively know what this label means. But we do have clues. For one clue, this is a very important and valuable song. It extolls God’s goodness and faithfulness. It sings of why we can put our trust in God especially when we are afraid. It reaffirms for us that human kind and their devices cannot truly hurt the faith believer in God. David pleads and rejoices in the help and deliverance God gives him. The root of the word means to stamp or grave (as in engrave). It leads us to believe that it labels the song as a composition so precious as to be worthy to be engraved on a durable tablet for preservation. Others might render “a psalm precious as stamped gold,” from the word kethem meaning fine or stamped gold. Perhaps like today’s top-selling songs that are “certified gold” could be considered “michtams” of a sort. We don’t know for sure anything except that God’s Word is all more precious than gold.

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June 26 – Praise Morning and Night

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And Your faithfulness by night,”  Psalm 92:1-2 (NASB)

The unnamed psalmist who wrote these words had learned of the benefits that are ours from praising the Lord. It was a good thing to do. God is pleased when we sing praises to the Lord. Some of our songs are about ourselves, what we are doing and how we are feeling. But real praise is about our Lord God. Praising God does not have to wait for any particular time or place. Knowing that it does us good to praise God, we are free to praise the Lord at any time of day or night wherever we are. When we praise God, we are showing our love, adoration, and expressing our thankfulness to Him for His attributes. In our verse the psalmist mentions two times – when we wake up and when we go to bed. In the morning we can start the day by recalling God's love and we can anticipate that He'll show his love during the day. Then in the evening as we retire for the day it is a good time to look back and praise Him for the way he has been faithful throughout the day. We can praise and proclaim His love 24/7.

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February 21 – Sowing Tears, Reaping Joy

“He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”  Psalm 126:6 (ESV) 

After seventy years as captives, the Children of Israel were allowed to return to their homes in Jerusalem and the country surrounding what was, and is called Mount Zion by many.  This psalm is a song of Ascents. It is a song of praise to God by the Hebrew people who had come back from their captivity. We can understand how those who had been away from their homes as exiles were thrilled to be back ascending the mountain to Jerusalem. Their mouths were full of happiness, joy, and praise to God. We may not have been exiled from our earthly homes but we can praise God for the great things he has done for us by bringing us into His family. We were strangers to His family but He has made us His children. Has not He shown us so often how much He loves us and how He will take care of us? We may have been weeping as we tended to the tasks God has given to us.  He promises that the result will be wonderful.  Like those who sow seed with tears of sorrow, God promises we will return with joy at harvest time. 

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February 17 –East Never Meets West

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:11–12  (NASB)

Have you ever asked yourself just how great God’s love for you is? You do realize that there is no way for us to measure the extent of what God has done for us and continues to do each day.  In this Psalm of  David these questions are posed and examples are given in an attempt to compare the greatness of God’s love with something we might have some concept about the great extent. These comparisons don’t bring us any closer to truly measuring God love for us but they underscore how far beyond our limited understanding God reaches out for us. Who knows how high the heavens are above the earth? Do we even know when the heavens begin in our world? The experts tell us how many light years away certain stars are, but they keep on finding more on beyond. Even the measurement of ‘light years’ is actually an educated guess and not proven. So how great is His love? It’s immeasurable, beyond comprehension. And His forgiveness of our sins is cached in terms that are beyond our finite brains’ ability to understand. 

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February 5 – Overcome By Grace

“..And he went on turning away, in the way of his heart. “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, Creating the praise of the lips.” - Isaiah 57:17-18 (NASB)

Context is important to learn doctrine from the Scripture given to us by God. Today we have a promise of grace from God even when we resist it. Yes, we may well attempt to resist his grace but when God chooses, He can and will overcome our resistance. When we are rebellious, He disciplines us just as in this passage about His people’s iniquity he “strikes them and hides His face:” Their response is not repentance but resistance toward God. Their backsliding ways continued. Their hearts remained turned away from the Lord God. The all-powerful sovereign God promises to heal them. He promises healing according to His will. We are chosen by God yet we wander off the path. He disciplines us to bring us back. We are cared for by God always. Even if we stubbornly resist his chastening, we still receive His grace. Merciful God promises to heal us. Therefore, we never boast that we have returned from backsliding. We fall on our faces before the Lord and with trembling joy thanking him for his irresistible grace that conquered all our resistance. Without that grace we would never know God as Lord and Savior.

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January 13 – The Danger of Concealing

“Shout for joy to God, all the earth;  sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.” Psalm 66:1-3 (ESV)

Psalm 66 in its entirety is the story God’s dealings with His people, especially how He dealt with Israel in helping them escape slavery in Egypt and find how God wanted them to worship Him. We can know how great God’s power is from this passage. So great that His enemies cringe before Him. What He does is awesome and God is deserving of our praise, worship and to receive glory through what He does. In this Psalm, there is also a warning given as a promise of what God will NOT do if we cling to our sinful ways. “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear;” Psalm 66:18 (NASB) We cannot pray through a screen of wicked behavior and habitual sin. SOMETIMES people quote promises, and say that God is bound to fulfill those promises to them, when all the time there is some sin in their lives they are not willing to give up. It is well for us to search our hearts, and find out why it is that our prayers are not answered. Verses 19-20, confirms that if we are confessing our sin, God hears and will not turn away from our prayers.

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December 14 – Praising and Thanking

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”  Hebrews 13:15 (NASB)

Each one of us who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior have a sacrifice we can offer up to God. During the days before Christmas we hear about the angels who sang praises to God when Jesus was born. We know that angels do sing praises to God in heaven and the Bible urges us to sing His praises too. That is the message of our verse today. The reason the angels keep singing praises to God is because they know how great and wonderful He is. The more we know about our Lord, the more we will want to praise Him. Let's be careful during these days of activity before Christmas that we do not let the lights and the beauty of decorations distract us and cause us to forget God's greatness and His love for us. As we sing carols of praise and thanksgiving, let's be sure to remember to really praise our God with all our hearts. It is a wonderful time of the years to continually offer our sacrifices. Let’s make our time of truly praising and thanking God for His wonderful gift of Jesus and eternal life.

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December 4– Knowing God is Great

“But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”  Psalm 40:16 (ESV)

The psalmist in this verse was expressing his wish for all of us but what he said was in line with God's plan for us and His will. Yes, God wants all of us who follow Him to find real joy in doing so and real joy in living for Him. He wants the Christian life to be a life of true joy. He wants us to be satisfied in Him so much that we are also satisfied in our life.  This is difficult to maintain because we fight against an enemy who wishes us to be depressed, dejected, and sad.  God is more powerful and a higher authority. He is on our side. Our verse also reminds us what happens when we are happy living for the Lord. It results in much praise to God.  When we enjoy the Christian live we will want to exalt the Lord. We will want that His name receives much glory and praise. And, that too is pleasing to the Lord who is truly worthy of your praise. Today, let's seek Him and rejoice and be glad in Him.  Let's also say with the Psalmist, “GREAT IS THE LORD!”

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November 30 – Correct Magnification

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”  Psalm 69:30 (ESV)

If we're to magnify something, how do we go about doing it? We have two options. Use a telescope which brings really big things visually closer so we can see more detail clearly. The fuzzy dot in the sky called Saturn can be seen with its distinct rings. The other option is using a microscope which makes very small things⸺even those that cannot be seen with our eye, appear much larger than they are. A minute particle is made large enough for us to see detail clearly. In our verse today, David declares that he will “magnify God” with his thanksgiving. He does not mean that he will make a small God look bigger than He is.  He does mean that he will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is. So, perhaps we are called not to be microscopes but to be telescopes. We magnify God. In doing that we bring Him closer and more visible. John Piper says this; “The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is."

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Thanks to DesiringGod by John Piper 

September 15 – Praise, Better than Life

“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.  So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”  Psalm 63:3-4 (NASB)

There is a chorus that uses the words of these verses.  It is a song that praises God for His lovingkindness.  It is a wonderful verse / song for us and especially in times when we need the reminder that God’s love for us is better than anything our life has to offer.  God cannot be out done in His steadfast love which he showers down on us.  Such abundant love evokes praise for God and honest heartfelt praise is the best thing we can give to God. So when we find ourselves in a dry and weary land where there is no water to quench our thirst, we can be assured that our Creator God, our Savior God loves us perfectly and without holding back.  Let’s sing along with David, “So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”  Praise your name Almighty God!

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August 9 – Worthy of Praise

“Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.” Psalm 135:3 (NIV)

Today's verse is from a Psalm that expresses praise to our God. So many psalms are used to sing praises to Him we often  think of them as loving songs. We are reminded here of how singing praises to God is a way to bring glory to Him and receive a blessing for ourselves. Our verse says that it is a pleasant experience. The things which are pleasant are the things that please us and can help us feel good and that's what happens when we sing praises to God. If we are troubled and feeling depressed, singing praises to our God will lift that and bring a pleasant feeing. Because God is worthy of our praise is why singing praises is such a pleasing experience. It's as our verse says, “The Lord is good.”  Yes, and He's worthy because He is God. He is so good and so loving toward us that praising Him should be natural. So whether we sing with our voice or sing with our heart lets be about praising the Lord today.

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July 13 – Singing “Praise The Lord”

“Let them praise His name with dancing; Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.  For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;  He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”  -Psalm 149:3-4  (ESV)

If we took the time, we would notice that the last five Psalms in the Book of Psalms each end with the words, “Praise the Lord.”  If ever we shout out or sing “Hallelujah!” we are shouting out the same phrase.  The Hebrew for that phrase of praise is the word Hallelujah  הַלְלוּ־יָהּ . Remember this the next time you sing or hear that song.  In the Word we hear about the love of God. We know that He is a God of compassion, that He has compassion for us. He knows exactly what we face each day.  Sometimes we struggle just to move ahead.  But God knows and He cares. And we’re glad for that because we sometimes come to Him in pretty bad shape. We’re glad that He takes us in anyway because of His love for us. But our God goes beyond feeling sorry for us – far beyond that. He takes delight in us. He is glad for us. He is happy that we are His. He will one day beautify us – that means He will glorify us. What a wonderful God He is! Allow Him to make us people He can be proud of.

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PBStelevised performance of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah with Greg Phillinganes (keyboards) John Robinson (drums) Michael Angel Alvarado (guitar) Ian Martin (bass) Noriko (keyboards) featuring Ethan Bortnick (13 years old).  Ethan Jordan Bortnick is an American pianist, singer, composer, songwriter, actor and musician. On October 3, 2010, Bortnick was listed in the Guinness World Records for "The World's Youngest Solo Musician to Headline His Own Concert Tour"

December 5 – To Hope is To Wait

“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.”  - Psalm 42:5  (NASB)

There is a promise here that is ours if we are willing to wait, to hope in God.  Depression is so very common among all people and it is nothing new.  The author of this psalm writes as if for all who will sing the song.  Being in despair is to be sunk down or depressed.  How do we react when we find our soul sunk down?  There is a mental illness some of us suffer with which is called depression but there is also these momentary times of depression due to profound sadness or disruption of our lives.  Death, loss of job or home, divorce, failure to succeed and many other circumstances which cause us to be in despair in a common way.  We learn this promise here that if we respond to such times by hoping in the only one who is unchangeable, our God; if we are willing to wait for his solution to work out, we are promised a return to praising Him again. He will come and His presence will bring help and the wisdom and guidance we need. God never forsakes His own. 

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November 27 – Soul Singing our Thanks

“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever..” Psalm 30:12 (NASB)

We should expect that we will experience times of sadness and mourning in our lives. We should know and believe that God's heart is with us in that sorrow.  The good news is that God frees us from the period of grief and restores in our hearts praise for His name.  It is evident that David was not waiting for a special day of Thanksgiving to express his thanks to God. He declares that he would give thanks to God forever. One interesting and helpful thought in this verse is that David was singing his thanks from deep within his soul or heart. David was a singer and song writer and he and others sang the songs he composed with their voices.  But David speaks of his heart singing too. How now can we be thanking God, from or with our hearts?  We can by putting our whole being into the song of thanks.  From deep within where we know and believe in God. It will be as if our hearts are singing to Him. And we can do that wherever we are, in whatever circumstances.

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